Miami Dade transportation planning organization

Miami Dade transportation planning organization

Introduction

Over the last few years, traffic congestion in Miami has proved to be a real nightmare not just in the US but compared to other cities globally. A recent research on traffic congestion on roads has placed Miami in the frontline of cities with the real scary traffic congestion. Annually, Miami constitutes the average 52 hours wasted on traffic roads in South Florida. In the US, the city is ranked 6th after traffic ghosts and goblins in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Jose and Seattle respectively (Anderson, 2014). According to the global traffic scorecard, Miami is ranked the tenth most traffic congested city in the world after Los Angeles, Moscow, Sao Paulo, and London among other traffic nightmarish cities in the world. Nevertheless, the Florida traffic congestion is said to be attributed to an increased number of vehicles, poorly developed roads and improper constructions plans in the southern cities among other reasons (Pang, 2018). Significantly, programs have been proposed for enactment to fight traffic woes in Miami with Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization emerging the most helpful.

The Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization

In the quest to providing an unending solution to the traffic congestion disaster on the Southern Florida Cities, the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization approves very supportive programs which will not only extinct congestion among personal drivers in unmoving paths of Florida but also in pedestrian paths (Groves et al, 2018). The Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization, usually shortened as Miami-Dade TPO is an organization headed by a Governing Board and whose mandate is to officially approve federally required programs and plans to ease transportation in Metrorail Dade land and regions. According to Groves et al, (2018), for the approvals to be done by the Governing Board, a number of universally agreed proposals must be relayed. Firstly, there must be recommendations by the TPO planning council which coordinates the programs and secondly, citizen participation and involvement through the advisory committee.

Organization’s structure

The Governing Board is the top management for the Miami-Dade TPO is comprised of thirteen Miami Dade County Board of county commissioners, eight elected officials from each of municipalities of 50000 people and above (Frank, et al, 2017). Below the officials there fall four members who are directly appointed by the governor to representing the Miami Dade Expressway authorities, the Miami Dade County School Board, a municipality within the county and finally non-elected officials from unincorporated Miami Dade County (Frank, et al, 2017). The general functions of Miami-Dade TPO include; final decision making on behalf of the organization, adoption, and endorsement of all policies and programs as recommended by the TPO planning council, adopting rules and the proposed budget, approving contracts and agreements passed by the other committees and establishing and altering the organization’s operational structure (Groves et al, 2018). Significantly, all boards and committees collectively work for the realization of the organization’s prime goals.

Miami Dade TPO Traffic programs

SMART plan

In order to establish a congestion-free transport way, Miami Dade TPO has essentially exercised powers and come up with adaptive programs which are expected to ease transportation in the Southern Florida region. Notably, a number of these plans and programs have taken a course with many of them remaining underway for enactment. A good example of the programs meant to reduce traffic congestion in Miami is the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) plan. This is a project expected to link the non-motorized bicycle and pedestrian paths among other objectives (Groves et al, 2018). The implementation of SMART trail program is expected to target a 10mille linear park and urban trail that runs below Metrorail of Miami River north of the Brickell Metrorail Station towards Dadeland Metrorail Station; 6.2 mile Ludlam Trail passing along the Ludlam Road and near the Southwest’s 80th street and finally the public pathway of Miami River Greenway which runs about 5.5 miles sides from of the river west starting from Biscayne Bay to the Miami International Airport.

As per the mandates of Miami TPO Governing Board and the organization’s laid down procedures, there must be substantial recommendations by the community committee before the final step of program approval. Correspondingly, the SMART program received a number of go-ahead votes from community members. According to Pang, (2018), they included the acceptance by the Javier Betancourt; Executive Director for Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, Susan Kawalerski; Everglades Bicycle Club’s President, Jami Rayes; Swire Properties’ Development manager and Meg Daly; the founder of Friends of Underline. It is evidently clear that increased use of the bicycle as opposed to vehicles helps in reducing traffic congestion by a large extent. In line with this, Victor Dover, well known as the town planner of the southern region encouraged everyone to adopt bicycle ride from homes to the transit stations in order to cut down on the time wastage as a result of traffic congestion.

Anderson, (2014) asserts that, the SMART plan is an essential infrastructure program that will enhance transportation mobility and upgrade the transit system to a world-class in the Miami-Dade County of Florida. The plan is expected to establish an interrelationship between the land use and the transport system in the region. In order to eliminate traffic congestion in every corridor, the SMART plan provides two major activities to take place. These include; Land use and visioning whose operations are headed by the TPO and the Project Development Environmental Studies (PD&E) headed by Florida Department of Transportation and The Miami Dade Department of Transportation (Anderson, 2014). The six corridors for enactment includes the Beach Corridor that runs from Midtown Miami all the way to Miami Beach Convention Centre. Secondly is the East-West corridor from the Miami Intermodal Centre to Florida International University.

Thirdly is the Kendall Corridor and this starts from Dadeland Metrorail station to Krome Avenue. The fourth corridor is the North Corridor from Martin L. King Jnr to NW 215th street and Northeast Corridor which starts from Downtown Miami to the city of Aventura (Frank, et al, 2017). The last Corridor is South Dade Transit way which begins from Dade south Metrorail station to SW 344th street transit terminal. According to Frank, et al, (2017), the Project Development and Environmental studies are the second strategies that will be applied to effectively implement the SMART plan in the six corridors. The main duty for the PD&Es is to research and establish a long lasting solution to the transit services for the fate of future population and employment growth in the Miami Dade County (Frank, et al, 2017). The major objective of PD&Es is to champion the establishment of a cost-effective premium transit system that is faster and reliable in terms of route and time.

The Miami-Dade TPO future

The end of Miami traffic congestion lies in the hands of the Miami Dade Transportation Planning Organization’s SMART plan. Although there are a number of programs being pursued by the organization to fight traffic congestion, the SMART plan emerges the best in spearheading the effort. According to Groves et al, (2018), the plan targets to spend over $1 billion in the next three decades to come up with a solution that best addresses the problem. Analytically, the maturity of the whole project is expected to establish a transit system that wholly addresses the system adverse impacts on businesses and the community. Secondly, it should enhance mobility by offering alternative transportation options with varying times and routes. Thirdly, the plan is expected to establish convenient connectivity to the regional transit system and destination and finally, it should enhance sustainable development that will improve life in the community.

Conclusion

Miami Traffic Congestion is a problem that has caught up with the most Southern Florida cities and comes by as a result of an increase in the number of vehicles day in day out, poor area planning and less developed roads. Miami Dade Transportation Planning Organization is an institution that has been in existence and granted mandate by the federal government to exercise duties in fighting traffic congestion in Miami Dade County and other areas in Miami. As a result, the organization’s management has raised several programs that have hotly been debated at state, community and individual levels for the best of Florida people. Significantly, the Miami Dade TPO has of late come up with a program; the SMART plan which reveals unending solutions to the nightmarish Miami Traffic. Finally, timely and thorough implementation of the program is expected to induce changes to the unsatisfactory transit system by enhancing access and connectivity of the regions in Miami Dade and Broward counties among other areas.

References

Anderson, M. L. (2014). Subways, strikes, and slowdowns: The impacts of public transit on traffic             congestion. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2763-96.

Frank, H. A., Murray, E., Ilcheva, M., & Cristo, C. (2017). The Transportation Landscape of South          Florida.

Groves, D. G., Knopman, D., Berg, N., Bond, C. A., Syme, J., & Lempert, R. J. (2018). Adapting           Land Use and Water Management Plans to a Changing Climate in Miami-Dade and   Broward Counties, Florida.

Pang, J. (2018). The Effect of Urban Transportation Systems on Employment Outcomes and        Traffic Congestion.